Thursday, 11 October 2012

The Butterfly Life Cycle

The Butterfly
Life Cycle

All butterflies have
"complete metamorphosis." To grow
into an adult they go through 4 stages: egg,
larva, pupa and adult. Each stage has a
different goal - for instance, caterpillars
need to eat a lot, and adults need to
reproduce. Depending on the type of butterfly,
the life cycle of a butterfly may take
anywhere from one month to a whole year.

Butterfly Eggs on a Leaf

The First Stage:
The Egg

A butterfly starts
life as a very small, round, oval or
cylindrical egg. Some butterfly eggs may be
round, some oval and some may be ribbed while
others may have other features. The egg shape
depends on the type of butterfly that laid the
egg.

Butterfly eggs are
usually laid on the leaves of plants.

Butterfly Caterpillar

The Second Stage:
The Larva (Caterpillar)

When the egg
hatches, the caterpillar will start his work
and eat the leaf they were born onto. This is
really important because the mother butterfly
needs to lay her eggs on the type of leaf the
caterpillar will eat – each caterpillar type
likes only certain types of leaves. Since they
are tiny and can not travel to a new plant,
the caterpillar needs to hatch on the kind of
leaf it wants to eat.

Caterpillars need
to eat and eat so they can grow quickly. When
a caterpillar is born, they are extremely
small. When they start eating, they instantly
start growing and expanding. Their
exoskeleton (skin) does not stretch or grow,
so they grow by “molting” (sheding the
outgrown skin) several times while it grows.

Caterpillar Becoming a Chrysalis

The Third Stage:
Pupa (Chrysalis)

As soon as a caterpillar is done
growing and they have reached their full
length/weight, they form themselves into a
pupa, also known as a chrysalis. From
the outside of the pupa, it looks as if the
caterpillar may just be resting, but the
inside is where all of the action is.
Inside of the pupa, the caterpillar is rapidly
changing.

Now, as most
people know, caterpillars are short, stubby
and have no wings at all. Within the
chrysalis the old body parts of the
caterpillar are undergoing a remarkable
transformation, called ‘metamorphosis,’ to
become the beautiful parts that make up the
butterfly that will emerge. Tissue, limbs and
organs of a caterpillar have all been changed
by the time the pupa is finished, and is now
ready for the final stage of a butterfly’s
life cycle.

Butterfly Emerging from a Chrysalis

The Fourth Stage:
Adult Butterfly

When the butterfly first emerges from the
chrysalis, both of the wings are going to be
soft and folded against its body. This is
because the butterfly had to fit all its new
parts inside of the pupa.

As soon as the
butterfly has rested after coming out of the
chrysalis, it will pump blood into the wings
in order to get them working and flapping –
then they get to fly. Usually within a
three or four-hour period, the butterfly will
master flying and will search for a mate in
order to reproduce.

When in the fourth
and final stage of their lives, adult
butterflies are constantly on the look out to
reproduce and when a female lays their eggs on
some leaves, the butterfly life cycle will
start all over.